ZAGREB, July 29 (Hina) - The vice-president of the Zagreb branch of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Zdravko Tomac, on Tuesday dismissed media reports that accused him of attempting to provoke public outrage and topple the city
government and the prime minister and SDP leader Ivica Racan by proposing an increase in the price of water in Zagreb.
ZAGREB, July 29 (Hina) - The vice-president of the Zagreb branch of
the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Zdravko Tomac, on Tuesday
dismissed media reports that accused him of attempting to provoke
public outrage and topple the city government and the prime
minister and SDP leader Ivica Racan by proposing an increase in the
price of water in Zagreb. #L#
Tomac announced in a statement that he would ask the Court of Honour
of the Croatian Journalists Association (HND) to intervene, saying
that an article written by Mladen Plese in the Nacional weekly was
"a conscious deceit and an attempt at provoking a conflict within
the SDP."
The article, headlined "Tomac attempted to overthrow Racan by
increasing the price of water in Zagreb", was published in this
week's issue of Nacional.
Tomac said that he and the leaders of the Zagreb SDP found out about
the idea of increasing the water price from the media. He called a
session of the presidency of the Zagreb SDP, which concluded that it
was intolerable to make a rash decision on a water price increase
without a prior discussion.
"After that the Mayor of Zagreb, Vlasta Pavic, realised the mistake
and proposed that the decision be rendered invalid," Tomac said.
He also denied reports that he had taken over the leadership of the
SDP Zagreb branch against Racan's will, saying that according to
the party statute, when the president of a party branch is absent,
his deputy stands in for him.
Tomac described media reports that the Zagreb branch of the SDP
wanted to take advantage of the illness of the president of the SDP
Zagreb branch, Milan Bandic, for a power struggle as "a grave
insult".
(hina) vm sb